The Lautoka Sugar Mill has reported a reduction in the quantity of sugar produced as the crushing season comes to an end.

The mills general manger Viliame Savou said the Lautoka Mill requires 6000 tonnes of sugar cane per day for normal operations.

However, he said this year the mill operated below 4000 tonnes of sugarcane per day.

“We have processed 375,000 tonnes of cane and have produced 37,000 tonnes of sugar, which is poor when compared to last few years,” he said.

He said the TCTS (tonnes of cane to tonnes of sugar) is 10 for this year.

“This means it took 10 tonnes of cane to produce 1 tonne of sugar this crushing season,” said Mr Savou.

He explained there were a lot of difficulties this season, especially after Tropical Cyclone Winston which damaged a lot of crops in dense sugarcane farms in the Western Division.

“One of the difficulty was that the low quantity of cane received by the mill, usually on Sundays we receive less sugar cane so we have to stop production”.

“We use this time to clean up the mill,” he said.

Mr Savou said the recent rain was having a negative impact on the supply of sugarcane to the mills.

“Because of the rain the lorries are not able to enter the cane fields, so we have to stop for long durations,” he said.

He said this year’s crops were much lower in quantity than they expected.

Mr Savou explained that it would be unfair to make a comparison with last year because of the circumstances we faced this year, especially after Cyclone Winston.

Meanwhile, the Lautoka Sugar Mill will end its crushing operations on December 14.

Edited by: farzana nisha

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